mixtape maestro (2.0)

It’s not the New Amerykah Part Two second single we were hoping for (that honor would fall onto the album’s Wings-looping seducer “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long”), but that’s okay: you’d have to be severely deaf not to have some love for official “Window Seat” follow-up “Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)”, Erykah Badu‘s playfully lightweight update of Sylvia Striplin’s 1981 old-school fave “You Can’t Turn Me Away” (better known to the kids as the sample source to the Junior M.A.F.I.A./ Biggie classic “Get Money”).

Weaving multi-layered Betty Boop-ish chirps in and out the Striplin jam’s familiar rubbery funk and quirky hiccups, Badu sounds like she’s having a ball as she tries on what can be taken as either a prowling gold-digger guise or a satire swipe at artists willing to sell their soul for that almighty dollar (“I look like a model/ I’ll do what I gotta/
To stay in the runnin’/ Cause I want you money”; see…works both ways).

Peep the video, spliced with the Rick Ross-featured remix of “Window Seat”, below:

BONUS DL: Sylvia Striplin “You Can’t Turn Me Away” (alt)

BONUS DL: Junior M.A.F.I.A. feat. Notorious B.I.G. “Get Money” (alt)

Anxious to pad up his next mixtape, Rick Ross has been on a serious grind in recent weeks, attaching himself to any new R&B/ hip hop track garnering the slightest bit of noise.

For his latest “remix”, Ross injects himself on the front-end of Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” (at the peak of the single/ video’s courting of controversy), his flow achieving a comfortable fit within the track’s incense-lit listlessness.

Just as long as we don’t get a video of him stripping down to his birthday suit in slow motion on the streets of Miami, we’ll take it.

DL: “Window Seat (Remix)” (alt)

Erykah Badu psyched many when she launched the era of 2008′s New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) with “lead single” “Honey”, a flirtatious throwback-baked R&B gem that ultimately had little tie-in with the set’s highly-praised psychedelic freak-funk soundscapes and socio-political dialogue (no wonder it ended up being stripped onto the album as a “hidden track”).

The track would, however, make a perfect fit on the High Priestess of Headwraps second New Amerykah installment Return of The Ankh, a sort of yang to World War‘s yin that presents Badu making a return trip to the less experimental neo-soul sleekness of her breakthrough Baduizm days with a focus on more traditional matters-of-the-heart themes. Mid-album track “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long” stands out as one of the better displays of this more streamlined approach to songcrafting.

Based around a seducing sampled loop from Paul McCartney & Wing’s mostly forgotten 1979 dip into slinky blue-eyed-soul territory (their minor Back To The Egg hit, “Arrow Through Me”), “Baby” employs Erykah’s always welcome girlish coo to capture the role of a girl with such “a fiendish crush” for a hustling chap, she barely knows what to do with herself whenever he leaves her side to start his “workday” on the streets.

“I know you got to get your hustle on,” she casts him off (while simultaneously winking to her early-career tune “Other Side of The Game”, which featured the same exact line), but while she’s projecting understanding on the surface, internally she’s bubbling with anxiety for his quick return so they can take their relationship to the next level (“I can’t wait to see how you move/…So gone baby, gone baby, don’t be long”).

Stream the song below, followed by Erykah’s thought-provoking, Matt & Kim-inspired clip for the enchanting “Window Seat”, and a MP3 offerings of “Gone Baby”‘s sample source and a “Honey” live performance.

New Amerykah Part Two (Return of The Ankh) drops March 30th.

“Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long”:

“Window Seat”:

BONUS DL: Paul McCartney & Wings “Arrow Through Me (‘Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long’ Sample Source)” (alt)

BONUS DL: Erykah Badu “Honey (Live Performance)” (alt)

Finding out what songs/ acts our favorite artists rock to on their own time is always an intriguing discovery, but what’s even more killer is when they bring that appreciation to life through awesome live cover treatments.

Below, peep two recent live performances that have garnered plenty of blog love (and repeated viewings by us) since their respective premieres: El Perro del Mar’s transfixing take on the xx’s debut album highlight “Shelter”, and an oh-so-smoove cover of Carole King’s oft-revisited staple “You’ve Got A Friend” by Erykah Badu.

This past weekend, understandably, saw countless MJ tribute/ covers emerging all across the Web as various artists, producers and DJ’s scrambled to their respective studios, anxious to pay some sort of musical homage to their idol. And while we promise that this site won’t be housing too many of them, we couldn’t pass up on sharing one of the best of the bunch: The Roots and Erykah Badu’s dazzling rendition of Mike’s 1972 solo hit, “I Wanna Be Where You Are”.

Erykah has pulled off great remakes in the past (highlights from her stellar ’97 Live album included amazing takes on Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long”, Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” and Chaka Khan’s “Stay”), and this gem, recorded prior to her guest appearance on last Friday’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, is no different, raising your spirits to a blissful crest with it’s hypnotizing merging of her expert vocal performance and The Roots’ jazzy support groove.

DL: “I Wanna Be Where You Are” (Michael Jackson Cover)” (alt)